beyondbinaryfandomcom-20200215-history
Autistic Inertia
Autistic inertia is a phrase used to describe the perseverance of habits that is common among autistic people. It can be very hard to break patterns that have formed the basis of your routines through your neurologically formative years. Similarly, it can be very hard to start new habits. This is true for all people, but seems to be especially true for autistic people and is sometimes related to a concept of "analysis paralysis". |AltogetherAutism.org.nz:/Paterson2016/Using the Maori creation story to navigate autistic inertia> :"The ability to hyper focus for long periods of time and ‘get things done’ can lead to high levels of academic achievement, musical, maths and art, as examples. In this aspect inertia can be positive. Although, in some settings this can cause issues with the people around the person, be it class or workmates or whānau. It can also cause deep frustration for the autistic person when others around don’t ‘keep up’ with them or ‘wait for’ them." Autistic Burnout Also known as 'Autistic fatigue' or 'Autistic regression'. This is the name given to an experience of Autistic people, whereby after long years of keeping up the façade of neurotypicality, you eventually and precipitously lose previously learned abilities. Monotropism |ThePsychologist.bps.org.uk:/Murray2018/Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism> :"Autistic Inertia :The bulk of what’s usually referred to as ‘executive dysfunction’ in autism  –  difficulties getting going with things, executing plans, and tearing ourselves away from things once we’ve started  – are more informatively talked about as ‘autistic inertia’. That is, resistance to a change in state: difficulty starting, stopping or changing direction. This is central to many of the difficulties autistic people face in life, but it is also part of what makes autistic thinking distinctive and valuable. :I’m a little uncomfortable with ‘executive dysfunction’ as a label for this, because it makes it seem like it’s a problem with steering; it’s more helpful to think about momentum of thought carrying us forward, often to conclusions that others might have missed. Thinking in terms of inertia also gives some insight into the discomfort of being interrupted, or plans changing. It’s as if we’ve loaded a cart to the brim with thoughts and feelings, and then we suddenly have to steer it round a sharp corner. :This tendency follows naturally from monotropism. Whatever interest is most aroused in a monotropic mind tends to pull in a whole load of processing resources. That naturally makes it harder to change track, especially when your understand that the paths of our thoughts always leave an imprint in our minds, and autistic ones leave deeper grooves than they might in the average mind." Cognitive Switching |PersonalMBA.com://Cognitive Switching Penalty> :"Every time you switch the focus of your attention from one subject to another, you incur the Cognitive Switching Penalty. In order to take action, your brain has to “load” the context of what you're doing into working memory. ... The Cognitive Switching Penalty is a Friction cost: the less you switch, the lower the cost." Category:Autism Spectrum Category:Habits